Got Nuts? We’d like your black walnuts, please!

September 24, 2015

We’re collecting as many local black walnuts as we can! Walnuts are very expensive at the store, but they make an excellent, healthy brain food: Black walnuts contain lots of good fats, such as polyunsaturated omega 3s and monounsaturated fats.

Nuts sometimes fall over a time period of a week or two, and they should be collected off of the ground, as they fall when they are ripe. This makes it a bit tricky for us to set up a volunteer harvest event, as we arrive to do the work all at once. We will set up events if you have enough nuts on the ground to keep 4 or 5 volunteers busy for half an hour, or else you can collect your own nuts over time in a squirrel-proof container.

If you have a walnut tree near you, perhaps you’d like to try your hand at gathering your nuts!

1. Put on your rubber boots, and stomp off the green or brown outer shell! Watch out, as the hull will stain your skin or clothing.

2. Grab a bucket of water and a scrub brush and give them a wash.

3. Lay the nuts in a place where the air can circulate freely around them for two weeks. You want to completely dry the outside layer, before any mold forms on the wet surface.

4. After two weeks, you’re ready to start cracking!

We hope you can help us by gathering your nuts as they fall – see the poster, below.